28 November 2009

Stormy weather

This video was taken on the 7th of december 2007 in "Raz de Sein" at the western tip of France, in Brittany, on a (very) stormy day.

Those lighthouses isolated in the open sea are/were called "Hells" because of the roughness of living conditions inside these isolated buildings, frequently harassed by the elements.

The first one seen in the video is Ar Men ("The Rock" in Breton), one of the best known lighthouses because of its isolated situation and the considerable difficulties its construction has presented (14 years were needed to build it !!), and the danger in evacuating its personnel. Considered as one of the most challenging workplaces by the community of lighthouse keepers, it has been named "The Hell of Hells".

The text above is excerpted from the description at the YouTube link, where there is also information on the other lighthouses in the video and on the coast.

3 comments:

The photographer, Jean Guichard, who made this piece of film, has published several books of lighthouses and their keepers. A few of his images are here: http://gritinthegears.blogspot.com/2007/06/pressure.html

I'd recommend googling him to get to his own website and see the images there.

I'm fascinated by lighthouses, love to visit them, did you know the russians built nuclear-powered ones?

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